Montréal - Paola Burgdorfer, Richard Dénommé, Marc Toutloff, Marco Veilleux, Maryse Labarre and Gérard Reid were recently fined a total of $1,524,500 at the Saint-Hyacinthe courthouse after being convicted of five charges brought by the Autorité des marchés financiers (the "AMF") in an illegal distribution case involving Gestion 2007 inc. and Gestion International 2007 inc.

In this matter, investors were offered various investment programs with enticing returns of between 2 and 10% per month. Several investors were reassured after being told that the distributions were safe and offered through the private bank Edmond de Rothschild Europe in Luxembourg, which lent prestige to the scheme. The amount of money invested for which charges were laid is approximately $8.7 million.

Four referring agents plead guilty On April 10, 2014, Paola Burgdorfer pleaded guilty before the Honourable Justice Gilles Charpentier to the 101 charges brought against her, namely, 41 counts of aiding a person to make a distribution without a prospectus, 35 counts of pursuing an illegal practice and 25 counts of making a misrepresentation. Justice Charpentier ratified the parties' joint recommendation of twice the minimum penalty for each count, for a total of $730,000.

On April 14, 2014, Richard Dénommé pleaded guilty before the Honourable Justice Marco LaBrie to the 53 charges brought against him, namely, 23 counts of aiding a person to make a distribution without a prospectus, 15 counts of pursuing an illegal practice and 15 counts of making a misrepresentation. Justice LaBrie ratified the parties' joint recommendation of two and a half times the minimum penalty for each count, for a total of $512,500.

On the same day, also before the Honourable Justice LaBrie, Marco Veilleux pleaded guilty to the five counts of illegal practice brought against him. Justice Labrie ratified the parties' joint recommendation of two and a half times the minimum penalty for four counts and twice the minimum penalty for one count, for a total of $12,000.

On April 22 , 2014, Marc Toutloff pleaded guilty to 20 of the 25 charges brought against him before Justice of the Peace Robert Lanctôt, namely, eight counts of aiding a person to make a distribution without a prospectus and 12 counts of pursuing an illegal practice. Mr. Toutloff was acquitted of five charges. Justice Lanctôt ratified the parties' joint recommendation of one and a half times the minimum penalty for each count, for a total of $78,000.

Two other referring agents convicted following trial On May 27 , 2014, Court of Québec Justice Ann Mary Beauchemin convicted Maryse Labarre and Gérard Reid of the 11 and 4 charges brought against them respectively. Maryse Labarre was found guilty of four counts of aiding a person to make a distribution without a prospectus, four counts of pursuing an illegal practice and three counts of making a misrepresentation, while Gérald Reid was found guilty of two counts of aiding a person to make a distribution without a prospectus and two counts of pursuing an illegal practice.

Justice Beauchemin imposed four times the minimum penalty for each count against Maryse Labarre for a total fine of $156,000 and triple the minimum penalty for each count against Gérard Reid for a total fine of $36,000.

Rock-Robert Bilodeau's file was suspended until judgment is rendered in another case in which he is facing criminal fraud charges.

The Autorité des marchés financiers (the "AMF") is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec's financial sector.